Music that moves you

Tag Archives: Steve Key

I had a great meeting today over at Spyhouse Coffee with Shirani, a young dynamo/promoter in the Twin Cities. Among the topics discussed were:
- Promoting the new album, “Faraway Farm”
- Email distribution list
- Booking shows for April, May, and beyond

The goal of the meeting was to start to put together the pieces of a promotional/performing campaign that will allow us to play more often in the Twin Cities. The bottom line is that it is very time-consuming to book shows locally. On my West Coast tour last summer, I would guess that I contacted 15-20 venues for every show that was booked. That ratio is about the same when I try to book gigs in the Twin Cities.

Every now and then, through the grace of God, himself, one might stumbled upon a guy like Steve Key, as I did last summer. Steve is an amazing guitarist and performer, but he is also one of the most helpful booking guys west of the Mississippi River. He booked three amazing shows for me in central California and, in the process, made my tour much more enjoyable.

So, my thought is this: If I can generate some name recognition (and some buzz) for my band, locally, I will be able to cut those contacts down to 1-5 for every gig booked. That makes things MUCH easier. If I am looking to book 10 gigs, rather than sending and following up on 150-200 emails, I only need to follow up on 10-50. That leaves hundreds of hours to focus on making music, practicing, and paying the bills, a big time savings.

But, time is money, as a wise man once said. So, I will be paying Shirani to compile a database of music reviewers both locally and nationally so that we will have a starting point to start promoting and creating awareness of the new Cryns #3 record.

The specifics are still in flux, but the way I see it, any action on the promotions front is a step forward for this band!